Vital tips for writing an academic essay in APA format


APA format is a formatting style that was created by the American Psychological Association. The purpose of APA format was to standardize the way in which papers were written in behavioral and social sciences. There is a manual published by the American Psychological Association which defines all of the aspects of formatting so that it is easier on writers and students alike to create a formal paper or academic essay and still meet the guidelines of the formatting.


There are multiple widely accepted styles for formatting academic essays, but in the field of psychology, and other sciences, APA is the widely accepted format. If you are writing an academic essay in APA format, it is best to follow these rules:


  1. The format paper should be double spaced using standard one inch margins, size 10 or 12 font, and Times New Roman.
  2. You should have a page header for every page you write.
  3. You should limit quotes in the body of your paper to less than 40 words with double quotation marks on either side. The citation for this should include the surname of the author, the year the article was published, and the number of pages inside of brackets.
  4. If you use a quote which is longer than 40 words, you need to use block quotes, without quotation marks but indented five spaces.
  5. You can use internet sources so long as you also reference the author’s name, the year it was published, the number of pages, the paragraph on the page you are referencing, and the heading.
  6. If you reword the text of someone else in your paper but don’t directly quote them, you still need to mention their surname and the year the article was published.
  7. Start with a title page for your final document which includes your title, your name, and your institution centered in the middle of the page.
  8. Include an abstract that is between 100 and 200 words on the page following the title page.
  9. Make sure you indent every new paragraph and that you include any necessary headings and subheadings. Academic essays may not require as many subheadings as a research paper, but it is important that you double check with the requirements from your teacher or class.

By adhering to these rules, you can ensure your academic essay is written in APA format correctly.

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